Day 34: Magic Monday

 

Day 34 of Nutrisystem 2.0 started at a balmy 35 degrees. It's going to drop into the high teen's overnight but that doesn't worry me. My heating system can keep the house warm as long as we're in the teens or higher. It's those single digit and below zero temps that trip it up. There is no artic blast in the forecast for the next couple weeks so I'm hoping we're out of the danger zone until next winter ! This same thing happened last year in late January and it was a one time event. I guess camping out in my bedroom one day each winter is not the end of the world, but I'm looking forward to the day that it isn't necessary !

I woke at about 6:15 and by 6:30 it was clear I wasn't going back to sleep. My mind had kicked off the day and there was no going back. By 7, my normal alarm time, the cats were fed and I had logged in to the company network. I couldn't start working before 8 but I was logged in and ready to go. I sat on the couch with my first cup of coffee and enjoyed the quiet of the morning. I reflected a little on the events of the weekend. Overall, I think I handled the situation pretty well. I didn't let my eating get completely out of control - mostly because I didn't have all my comfort foods on hand ! I'd have loved to indulge in mac & cheese or hotdogs or chicken tenders dripping in ranch but I don't have any of that in the house, and I certainly wasn't going out in sub-zero temps to get it. If I was really desperate I could have used Instacart, but actually I never once thought about those foods until today. I do have bread and sliced cheese on hand, and I did think about making grilled cheese - but that meant hanging out in the freezing kitchen for a while .. lol ! So maybe I wasn't as traumatized as I thought. Instead, what if I just saw a problem and handled it ? What if I saw an excuse to eat that s'mores snack mix and took it ? That's really what I did. Yeah, the house was freezing and the water pipe being frozen was a concern but the entire time I knew it was temporary and I made do. I knew temps were going to rise significantly on Sunday and all would return to normal. That kept me from letting panic set in. Over the years I've had no choice but to learn to figure things out myself and I think moving my cats and me into my room is a pretty genius move. I am hoping that once the house is sided my heating system can keep the house warmer and things like that won't be necessary. We'll see !

Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch was roasted carrots and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 180 calorie cheese & crackers. Dinner was 220 calorie rotini & meatballs with more roasted carrots. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1110.

First workout of the day was 33 minutes in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. I briefly thought about getting a workout in before work but in the end the couch and my coffee won out ! After work was almost 19 minutes in Menorca, Spain. The programmed speed of this walk was 2.2 mph but I decided to kick it up a notch, to quote Emeril Lagasse ! I started off at 2.4 mph and with 16 minutes to go I bumped it up to 2.6, then added 0.1 mph every 2 minutes until I reached 3.2 mph. Once I did 2 minutes at that pace there was still 2 minutes to go - so I did 1 minute at 3.3 and 1 minute at 3.4 mph ! It was not easy but as several iFit trainers have said, you can do anything for one minute and I did ! I used to be able to hit 3.7 mph so I know I can get there with time and hard work. I'm pleased with the effort I put in today. I'm getting better at working out as soon as I'm done working, rather than sitting around getting lazy. By 6 pm I was done with work and exercise and relaxing on the couch with my dinner !

I hit the ground running at 8 am and got a bunch of work done today. I'm really happy with what I accomplished, even though the first project I worked on took me a lot longer than it should have. Math was never my strong suit and sometimes numbers just boggle my mind. I think part of the problem was I was thinking about the next item on my list before I finished with the one I was working on ! Once I got past that one I was able to plow through a few more, finishing up just after 5 pm. If all goes well I should be able to close out an impressive number of very old projects this month. Many were moved to me because they were so old and my boss knew I'd get them out the door. When our team took on this new challenge back in the summer of 2021 we inherited a massive swamp of work that had not been touched for months. Our training gave us maybe 10% of what we needed to know but I was determined to figure this stuff out and get these projects done and gone. It was a challenge I'd been waiting years for and actually, I surprised myself. I didn't think I would "get it" but after weeks and months of hard work I did get it and I cleared away the backlog I'd inherited. At that point I started taking on some of the backlog from my peers who were still struggling and acting as a resource for the entire team. I firmly believe we win together and we lose together. None of this was about making me looking special. I'm more proud of the work I do today than I've ever been - and I'll be celebrating 38 years of service in April !!

All in all, today was a great day. I stuck to Nutrisystem. I got my exercise. I got a lot done at work. I also had plenty of time to just relax. What more can you ask for ? Well, I can ask for many, many more days that are just as perfect ! On that note, I'm heading for bed super early for some games and tv.